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South Korea isn’t letting US imposed sanctions on Iran hinder South Korea’s developing trade relationship with Iran. Here are the details…

Yesterday we learned that SWIFT caved-in to US pressure to cut off financial activity going into and out of Iran. Sovereign nations, however, prefer business and trade over sanctions compliance and cooperation, and we are seeing exactly that with South Korea.

The Asian nation and Iran have agreed upon a sanctions work-around.

Here’s reporting from RT:

South Korea and Iran have agreed to switch to national currencies in trade exchanges as the sides aim to strengthen relations despite the US sanctions on Tehran.
The agreement is of great importance to both countries, Yonhap News Agency reported, explaining that the deal indicated Korea’s concerns about relations with Iran.

The countries also agreed to make payments and settle their financial and banking accounts using the South Korean national currency, the won. That will allow South Korean and Iranian companies to continue their extensive exchanges in various fields.

The volume of bilateral trade surpassed the $12-billion benchmark last year, according to Iran’s ambassador to Seoul Saeid Badamchi Shabestari, who told Press TV that the Iranian and Korean economies complement one another.

The fact that Tehran-Seoul relations had been founded on “reality”would keep the countries determined to deepen the ties in the face of America’s “hostile and illegal unilateral actions,” the ambassador said.

In response to US sanctions, Iran and its trade partners have been negotiating the reduction of the US dollar’s share in mutual trade.

Russia, Turkey, India, Iraq, Qatar, China and others have been actively making steps to switch to national currencies in settlements in order to bypass Washington’s pressure.

What do we have here?

We have sovereign nations increasingly taking active measures to get around Washington’s heavy-handed pressure. The nations mentioned in that last paragraph of the RT article are no small fries either. South Korea is a major US ally. India has the world’s fastest growing economy this year. China and Russia? We all know that story.

What else can be said about all of those nations?

They all like their gold, and many of them are actively adding to their sovereign stacks. Not only that, but many of them are looking for ways to get around the US sanctions imposed on otherwise good, legitimate trading partners.

And so we see, just like with this most recent example of Iran and South Korea, that when push comes to shove from the United States, affected nations are simply choosing to walk-away and do business on their own.